Hollywood star Simu Liu said that he was crushed when he didn’t get the part in “Crazy Rich Asians.”
In a new interview, the actor from “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” said he was devastated that he didn’t get a role in the 2018 movie.
The 33-year-old Chinese actor tried out four times for Jon M. Chu’s rom-com, which starred Constance Wu and Henry Golding. He said he was told he didn’t have the “It factor,” which made him feel bad about himself. “I just remember being devastated at the time,” he said on the podcast “How to Fail with Elizabeth Day.”
“It was when I was going through a very hard time,” Simu said.
He went on to say, “I was trying to figure out if I could be the main character or if I would always have to be a supporting character.”
Simu added: “We heard, “Well, Simu doesn’t have the X factor” or the “It factor.” And that was such a crushing blow for me because, again, I felt like I had already worked so hard.”
He said, “I’ve come so far, and I’ve trained as an actor and taken a lot of classes. I was like, ‘What is the ‘It factor’?’ It felt like someone was telling me I wasn’t good enough.”
Simu will play a version of Ken in the upcoming live-action “Barbie” movie, which also stars Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken. The cast has had so much fun filming the movie that they can’t believe they are getting paid to do it.
Simu spilled: “It’s a lot of pink. There is a lot of pink, which makes coming to work every day kind of fun, right?”
Also, Simu said that “There have been times on this set when the cast, crew, and even the director, Greta Gerwig, have looked at each other and asked, “How are we getting paid to do this?” This is crazy,’ which I think is a good sign because it feels like we’re just going to play every day.”
He kept raving, “And I can’t wait for people to see it.”